Crossroads. Chapter 4

0x0003

They muddied three years ago. We met with six of us in Israel, in the Golan in the rented ticmer ¹ for a week - among the blooming, stupefying white-pink almond groves. Gathered on the anniversary of the university.

- Guys, life has become boring. “I have a white-collar middle-age crisis,” Smolkin complained.


- Fight club! “And Danik showed with a wave of his hand clenched into a fist, an alternative to Sashkina’s“ boring life ”: a two-story house in a quiet area of ​​Toronto, a child in a prestigious school, a programmer’s wife, like him, are packed to the fullest. - Go to some basement with a ring and a crowd of screaming assholes who are crushing your well-being on eggs, they will fill your face with you, and you will be thrilled every time Tanka in your two-story mansion in a boring silence of Toronto’s paradise will change your open wound to you bandage with quinoa and plantain until your wonderful son accompanied by a governess returned from a boring school for geeks.
')
- Where did you see the swan in Canada?

Smolkin apparently took the advice of the American seriously. Danik has lived in New York for ten years and was pleased with his life. The same degree of arrangement, the wife, in the tone of his name - Dana - two children, his home in the suburbs.

- Come on, Danik! All of us here start to grow bald, grow fat and wither! Remember how we crawled up six or eight people in the Bug to the Swedish? Now with our volumes ... - he patted himself on the clearly marked tummy.

- Only in a minibus, - added Igor.

“And there was something in it,” Smolkin continued dreamily, stretching the phrase and slowing down the dialogue that was gaining momentum. “I was pressed into Tanya in that Ilyushkina machine a couple of times so that I still can not get out of her.”

Everyone smiled:

- That's what you, before graduating from the university of two karapuzov pressed!

- And yet, - Smolkin returned to serious. - We must shake it up! Let's put together our wonderful brains and remind the world who the best graduates in the world are ...

- All, all, stop it! "The best in the world"! One of the best, - Sergey slyly smiled, having stroked Smolkin on a wire of black hair. Illuminating, he approached the sixth party of the party. - Are you silent, Scrooge? We all because of you are experiencing an inferiority complex.

Scrooge, Dima Halperin, has grown terribly rich in the past few years. Two successful gaming projects, unexpectedly for him, brought millions of North American dollars, and he has not yet decided which place in the social rank is comfortable for him, especially in relationships with friends of his youth.

- Guys! Salvage falls on me already uncontrollable. My shooters are quite primitive and inferior to many others in the quality of content, but, apparently, full of idiots, who have something that is simpler, just lay on the intellect. In general, lucky. But what are you waiting for me? Do you want me to spread my fingers like a fan or, conversely, give money to the poor to Via Dolorosa?

And everyone looked at Ilya.

- Swedish, your silence is fraught with the unknown.

Igor took a sip of his signature "Negus" and raised his glass:

- Do you remember how then, in the Lift, under my syrup, warmed up on the fire, you poured us about crossroads?

Ilya got up, they gave him a mug filled with “syrup”, and all five of them playfully portrayed heightened attention, suggesting to hear something from the reserves of sarcastic and humorous humor, but Illya was silent. He looked from one of the young men around him to the other, retaining absolute seriousness on his face, and this look gradually replaced the humorous expression of their physiognomy with a bewildered expectation of something unusual.

- The game begins like this: you are standing on a city street, in front of you is the sign "Library", and the arrow invites you to enter there. A friendly girl asks: “What would you like to read? In our library, you can choose only one literary genre - detective ”.

You agree to choose what the charming employee offers you. The girl asks to fill out the questionnaire. The usual questions are: the date and place of birth, where you studied, who you served, your hobbies, what kind of music and what movies you like. After you have filled the last line, your name will light up on a shelf in a close row of books, on the spine of one of them. Pretty girl pulls it from the shelf and stretches it to you. It remains to open this book.

General silence was interrupted by a knock at the door. There was no bell in this timer - you had to knock a horseshoe bolted to a plank door. A knock was repeated, and after that everything seemed to exhale. Smolkin, choking, swallowed loudly saliva:

- This is probably someone from that library book is knocking, I will go open ... Or not ... - he slowed down and turned to Sergei: - Let's go together.

On the threshold stood the driver Halperin, and he, after hearing the whisper of the guy who came up close, threw up his hands, turning to his fellow university students:

- Lenka at the airport! I flew in without warning, and, making a face in feigned displeasure, added: - to check.

The driver grinned. Everyone waved to the millionaire, saying goodbye, expressing on their faces complete understanding and sympathy for the unexpected news of "the wife, without warning, at the airport." Well, after all, not knocked on the bedroom door, not a disaster.

- How so! She was going to check it! This is no peace for him ... Although check-check it out! Yes, apparently, Dimka resigned, it was useless.

Igor gave it out, pulling on a cigarette, after the door closed behind Halperin. Everyone was silent. Everyone was familiar with Elena Wagner, a Muscovite, a girl, from which, within the radius of reach of her gaze, space was bent, sucking the male half of humanity into the funnel of its cosmic attraction.

Dima introduced her to the community two years ago: “Russian beauty”, slender hips, thin waist, high cheekbones, clearly defined lips, no Botox, natural beauty, filled with young juice, and eyes — they only look at you, even a second, a split second, but this girl knew how to create the illusion of heightened interest in everyone who paid attention to her. And attention to this girl paid all the men who met on her way. There was no coquetry in her, she behaved like an equal participant in a party, if it was a party; the first rushed to help the hostess, responded to any proposal to discuss what she was familiar with, could show exercises for the back to the stooped computer-communication slaves, without being embarrassed by the enthusiastic looks of men and the jealous whisper of their friends. And this way of behaving as if she were no different from other women, who always looked pale against her background, added to her that unusual charm, in which she seemed very close and very accessible. Short step, half pitch - and she will be interested in you, put her tender palm on your shoulder, and you are ready to feel her breath on your cheek, ready to pull her by the slim waist, so unexpectedly pliable, to feel with each cell you feel the heat of her hot, dressed in that transparent, not concealing alluring bends, bodies.

- Bane Baba! - concluded Igor.

All those present spent some time under the hypnotic influence of this young woman, and it quickly became clear to everyone that these half-steps separate each of the applicants from the concrete wall, behind which nothing was left of the charming immediacy and innocence. The iron grip and energy aimed at achieving the goals set by this twenty-five-year-old girl were felt after a few days of dating. Halperin was her goal and was under her full influence, although he tried to hide it somehow, presenting his relationship with her as patronizing fatherly. He was older than his wife by twelve years.

- Well then? For one of us, ”Beller continued,“ the choice of a path on this is how are you there, Ilya? - the intersection took place.

- Fate decided right, it should have happened! There are five of us, and that's enough. Scrooge is busy with his business and beautiful Helen, and, I think, he lost a little qualification, and we, - and Ilya outlined with his hand a circle, closing it in those present - in the most fighting and, I hope, motivated state.

- Motivation is what? Money? - Sasha looked inquiringly at Cohen standing in front of them.

- Money as a tool. I look at it that way. Money opens the door to many possibilities.

“It sounds trite,” Igor scoffed scornfully, “millions are no longer fashionable, billions are moveton, and we earn good money for a decent life here and so.”

“Ilya means charity,” Smolkin spoke up for his friend.

- So, stop! - Ilya, like a judge at a football match, raised his hand.

- First, we will deal with what will be damn interesting. The excitement of creation. Igor, this is not an incentive for you? Secondly, the money still needs to be earned, and before that it is still so far that it should not bother your unremitting soul. And thirdly, all of you at this moment can choose a completely different road - we are at the crossroads.

This time Igor raised both hands:

- All-all, I have all the attention! We are all attention - he caught the approving nods of Danik and Sergey with his eyes.

- So, the game! - Ilya tilted his head, as if intending to dive, and began: - I have already told you before that it would be interesting to create such a virtual world in which a person could try to go along a different road, different from his life path. That is, our task is to bring him to a crossroads and offer a choice, perhaps, to fulfill some of his dreams, to fulfill the hidden, to test ourselves in such situations that are absolutely inaccessible in real life. This is, of course, a very difficult task, not only technically but also psychologically and even in a legal sense. Therefore, after all, - the game! At least in the initial stage. But the game should be one that does not exist to date. It must contain an element of choice of its purpose, it must be desperately gambling, and in the course of the game, sensations that do not exist in today's gaming content should be achieved with the help of technology, of course, allowing this to be achieved.

“You mixed it up coolly,” Danik rubbed his palms impatiently. - Already interesting. Library, detectives ...

“Yes, detectives.” Wrap our idea in this wrapper. There are two sides to the game: the criminal and the investigator. The one who chooses the role of the criminal, develops his version of the crime and implements it. The investigator receives information about the committed or impending crime and tries to solve it or prevent it. The program, having primary information about the players, prepares several versions of the scenarios for them, and by choosing them, they enter the world of new emotions, moral choices, reassessments of many of their own life attitudes.

- Where's the chip? What, besides the idea itself, is innovation? Where do feelings come from?

- Now, Shevinsky, everything is ahead. We will create an absolutely real picture: streets, houses, people, today's world, the past, any geographical point. It will be possible to play while sitting at the computer screen, but a completely different level is real movement in places programmed in different versions of their competition. This may be the nineteenth century London or Rome since the collapse of the Empire. The whole picture is a projection of the program on transparent screens, in a helmet or in glasses. At the same time, you see real life - the street, the house, the park - and the virtual one, the one where you commit or uncover the crimes that occur in these very places, quarters of today's Rome or London.

“You have put on something like this, my head is spinning,” Smolkin looked at the speaker in amazement. - How do you imagine London of the nineteenth century? Where are we going to draw you all these carriages with ladies in crinolines? How many artists, programmers and cleaners should work? Because it will be necessary to plant ten floors by the programmer people, and on each floor - two cleaners.

- Wait, Seryozha! What are you with your cleaners! You, Ilyukha, explain what kind of phantasmagoria? What kind of grandiosa fiction? - Sasha poured wine into his glass, Ilya stretched out his glass and offered to pour it to everyone.

- Do not ten floors. One office to house equipment ... and five jobs. All models, all houses, bridges, horses, knights and ladies in crinolines will suck up or generate our program, to which I developed the engine, from the entire information field of the Internet, from all its hidden corners. It remains to buy the equipment, modify some details - and we will get the “Wikipedia” of 3D models for all times and the entire geography of our blue ball.

Ilya gave time to friends to be alone with their thoughts in prostration and bewilderment and continued:

- The program will respond to the written or spoken word by 3D models or scenes - from a simple standard to subtle and colored. Let's say you write the word “room” and the picture of the quad room appears first: the walls, the ceiling and the floor, and then the windows, the color of the walls, the doors, the furniture and other details to a bronze chandelier with ghost candles. We will divide the display screen into two halves: we will write text on one, an animated scene will appear on the other, acquiring all our desires in color, volume and movement.

- Fuck! And you kept all this in your head and only today threw these experiences on us? How are we supposed to go to bed now, with the packaging of Novopassit?

Igor patted Danica on the shoulder:

- Wait, he just started, let him finish, then we will think about “Novopassit”.

- Not! - Danik wound up. - Do you still explain how this is possible? And why so far no one has created such a "Wikipedia"? There must be some insurmountable obstacle, violation of property rights, or whatever it is called! - from excitement Danik swallowed the end of words and did not waste time searching for suitable epithets. - If what you presented to us now is realistic and possible for execution, it’s just a plague, and you are just some kind of genius!

“Calm down,” Igor patted Shevinsky again on the back and, slightly pressing on his shoulders, sat him down in a chair. Smolkin stretched out in thought:

- Well, like this! Let's say this: there is something in it, but something is still not enough to understand the process itself. How will she filter, filter, select, collect, distribute? In general, this is some kind of doomsday! Yes, most importantly, the pictures we pull out, and the movement? How are you going to reproduce the movement?

Ilya did not interrupt the agitated audience, he lit a cigarette from a beautiful “Zippo” lighter, donated by his wife, and with pleasure he drew in a fragrant smoke. Waiting for a pause, he continued:

- The chip is present and, if it calms you down and convinces that everything I told you about works, I will explain what it is. Statics will get from all the content that exists on the Internet. The movement is only from what is presented in the format of games, cinema, concerts, competitions, shows - all that is alive. And this is a serious task, incomparable with the simple collection of pictures. So, I imagined that we can “pull” out of everything that moves, models, so we call them, or skeletons of moving objects and living creatures. This is a constellation of points or triangles distributed over their surface, which will be removed by the program only from those figures that will be accessible to the view from different sides. Then, after reading the coordinates of these points during the movement, we can move any shell under them. Well, for example, the runner runs through his hundred-meter distance, and under his moving points we will let you down, Danik, look, and you will look like an Olympic champion. Well, approximately this is how it looks, - and Illya has turned to a general viewing monitor on the coffee table.

On the screen, Danik ran to the finish line to the hum of a huge stadium, ahead of his rivals, and tore off the scarlet tape. He continued to move, raising his hands in greeting, demonstrating the happy smile of the champion to the stands.

Next chapter

1 Zimmer - a country house. (Author's note)